Middle-earth: Shadow of War Multiplayer Features Ranked Online Play

It’s becoming clear that Middle-earth: Shadow of War will be a very different game than its predecessor in certain ways. On top of announcing that the open-world adventure will feature microtransactions this weekend, it’s now been confirmed that ranked online play will be present. Multiplayer revolves around a new mission type called “Social Conquest,” that has players invading the fortresses of other players. These can be played in both friendly matches, and ranked ones (which will have players risking followers).

Here’s how Eurogamer describes the competitive multiplayer mode in Middle-earth: Shadow of War:

There are two different ways to take on a fortress in Social Conquest: Friendly conquests allow players to mount an assault without risk to their followers. In ranked mode, players will earn a better assault rating with each successful conquest, with that rating dropping in the event of a failed attempt. Vitally, ranked mode is also different in that the attacking player’s followers are at risk – if a captain dies during an assault, it’s dead for real. Think of it like dying in the matrix, only for orcs.

For more on Middle-earth: Shadow of War, check out PlayStation LifeStyle’s E3 2017 preview. Here’s a snipper of what PlayStation LifeStyle Senior Editor Chandler Wood had to say about the game:

Despite my loss, I had a lot of fun with Shadow of War. Part of the engaging gameplay is in dealing with failure, ducking and weaving as the world changes, your enemies growing stronger, that growing feeling of vengeful rage as you watch a simple orc become the one that just won’t leave you alone. Middle-earth: Shadow of War seems to take on everything that made Shadow of Mordor our game of the year in 2014 and crank it up to levels that could very easily make it another game of the year contender in 2017.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is set to release October 10, 2017 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It’ll also support the PlayStation 4 Pro.

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